Birmingham Cars and Coffee - 6/9/18 - Homecoming

"DaftRyosuke - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish!" (daft-ryosuke) 06/12/2018 at 20:28 • Filed to: None

8

9

Last week’s Cars and Coffee was a true return to form for Birmingham area car meets.

A meet in 2013 at the old location.

For those who don’t know, Birmingham’s Cars and Coffee used to meet every week since its inception at a parking deck above a local coffee shop in Brookwood, one of the more affluent neighborhoods of the metro area. This more centralized and somewhat more posh location meant that the richer folk of Birmingham were more comfortable bringing their high-end machines to the meet. This made for some wild spots at the show, and my first visit back in 2015 was a cherry popper for spotting a lot of the regular supercars we see a lot of these days.

However, the fun was stopped later in 2015, when attendees made their way up the parking deck to be greeted with a row of cones blocking the exit to the top deck. Apparently, local police and the mall security had become fed up with the incessant revving, tire squealing, and apparently even minor fender benders with other cars and structures, that they had decided to shut us down for good. After that day, the meet relocated to a firearms store in Hoover about thirty minutes away.

A meet from a few weeks ago at the new location.

While it was in a more central location for a lot of attendees, the area in which the show was located seemed to turn off most of the more posh owners, so we saw less of the high-end supercars and rarities at the store than we did at the original location. To make matters worse, in 2016, half of the lot was demolished and replaced with a O’Reilly’s, which alienated a lot of potential attendees during the construction, who never seemed to return. So, basically, because of the issues, the show became a bit of a mess, with attendance and variety depending basically on the luck of the gods, and whoever wanted to come out that day.

Alas, about a month ago, there was a silver lining on the horizon. The old coffee joint had come under new ownership, now as Magic City Octane, and had struck a deal with Brookwood’s ownership to begin hosting the meet again at the old location. The meet would be slightly different, with more emphasis on security (from event hosts and local police attendance) and with the meet only happening once a month. Nevertheless, we had our old spot back, and decided to celebrate the first show by aptly titling it, “Homecoming.” With this return to form, the attendance was off the charts, doubling most days in Hoover and even some of the days when the meet was avid in Brookwood. This meant for a tasty collection of cars coming about. Join me, shall you?

So, all in all, how would I describe homecoming?

Well, it’s good to be back.

Ash78, voting early and often > DaftRyosuke - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish! 06/12/2018 at 21:33

0

I’m sure it also helped matters that the anchor tenant at that end of the mall recently went out of business, so any complaints that shoppers were bothered would hold no water.

That whole mall has been a boom-bust-boom-bust for as long as I can remember. Great location, economically and geographically, but people are weird and don’t want to shop in air conditioning for some reason (our biggest and most opulent mall — which is killing the others — is all outdoors, like 10 strip malls shoved together with no plan. Horrible to drive, horrible to shop).

DaftRyosuke - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish! > Ash78, voting early and often 06/12/2018 at 21:37

0

What is our biggest mall? Grand River? I thought it was Riverchase, cause I see far more people at Riverchase than at Grand River.

I had no idea the tenant (Belk, right?) was gone, but I’m sure that helps a lot. I don’t want to see Brookwood die, but even I’m guilty for hardly ever shopping there as everything there can be found closer to home in Riverchase or in Alabaster at the Promenade.

Ash78, voting early and often > DaftRyosuke - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish! 06/12/2018 at 22:31

0

You forgot Summit — largest mall in the state (by sales) and the city of Birmingham gets its fat 10% sales tax from it thanks to gerrymandering so much of 280.

I don’t like to consider it a mall since you have to drive between so many stores.

The Galleria still wins on square footage and seems to be holding on ok, even expanding.

DaftRyosuke - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish! > Ash78, voting early and often 06/12/2018 at 22:32

0

I never counted The Summit for some reason.

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > DaftRyosuke - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish! 06/12/2018 at 23:00

0

So why did the s-chassis get trailered? Also, UGR Superlegerra. Didn’t know there was one in town.

Nauraushaun > DaftRyosuke - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish! 06/12/2018 at 23:23

0

Omg. Cedric? Fucking dope.

Is this really how E-types hoods open? Barely at all?

DaftRyosuke - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish! > Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap 06/12/2018 at 23:48

0

I’m guessing it wasn’t running or they didn’t want to drive it over the speed bumps. One or the other.

DaftRyosuke - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish! > Nauraushaun 06/12/2018 at 23:48

0

It’s a Cefiro :)

And yeah, apparently so. There’s actually more room under there than you’d think, but it explains why I see a lot with their hoods just removed altogether.

Nauraushaun > DaftRyosuke - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish! 06/12/2018 at 23:53

0

Dammit! Ceffy! I totally knew that I really did. My friend actually had one for a while and I’ve completely forgotten.

All I could think of was Cedric and Gloria!